Best Biographical Movies - Part 9
Posted on 1 Aug 00:00
Biographical films help audiences become familiar with persons and situations. Because they feature a degree of accuracy, these films are a great for exploring real legends, historical figures and important events in time.. This article will discuss seven more biographical movies worth watching.
Plot: Director, Ross McElwee had initially planned to make a film about the effects of General William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas during the American Civil War. But, a traumatic romantic breakup caused this film to become about completely different than planned. Unlike originally planned, 'Sherman's March' focuses on director, Ross Elwee's, personal life while chronicling the women in his life, and the religious backgrounds that surrounded him. The plot also touches on the nuclear holocaust as per the Cold War’s perspective and the legacy and complexity of General Sherman's own life. The film is a hybrid of modern biographical movies, blending fiction and non-fiction. It takes on a reiterating pattern in which Elwee gets involved with different women and eventually develops romantic attachment for them. Sadly, none of these relationships work out and eventually end.. The film ends up being a recount of self-discovery and self-reflection and not a biographical or sociological film.
Director: Ross Elwee.
Main Cast: Ross McElwee (the director), Ann McElwee and Patricia Rendleman.
Commercial Performance: Unknown.
Awards and Nominations: During the 1987 Sundance Film Festival, this movie was nominated for and awarded the Grand Jury Prize. In the year 2000, 'Sherman's March: A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation' was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry. This followed the U.S. Library of Congress deeming it aesthetically, historically, and culturally fit.
2. DiG! (2004)
Plot: Viewed through the eyes of The Dandy Warhols, an alternative rock band and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, American musical project and band led and started by Anton Newcombe, this film explores the collision of art and commerce. The film depicts how love-hate relationships can run developing careers. It follows the band’s two respective leaders, Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Anton Newcombe. The two bands follow different paths to fame after the 1990s alternative boom. For Portland, Oregon's the 'Dandy Warhols', whose leader is Courtney Taylor-Taylor, signing a major label and scoring a radio hit is the new norm and the lucrative deal. San Francisco's 'The Brian Jonestown Massacre', led by Anton Newcombe, chose to go out of their way to sabotage their own rise to fame with a chain of increasingly weird incidents, including onstage fistfights.
Director: Ondi Timoner.
Main Cast: Anton Newcombe , Jeffrey Davies, Joel Gion, Matt Hollywood and Peter Hayes.
Commercial Performance: Unknown.
Awards and Nominations: During the 2004 Sundance Award Festival, the movie was nominated for and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.
Plot: 'Looking for Richard' is a hybrid biographical movie. The film blends filmed scenes of Richard III by William Shakespeare and a documentary element that examines whether and how Shakespeare's role in popular culture is still important today. Al Pacino does an in-depth analysis of Richard III through a series of interviews aimed to come up with the reality. He does this through a chain of scenes from Shakespeare’s Richard III, scenes of rehearsals for Richard III, and scenes where parties involved discuss the play, as well as the times that shaped the play. The interviews feature British actors, who try to explain why Americans have a harder time Shakespearian roles than their British counterparts.
Director: Al Pacino.
Main Cast: Al Pacino (as Richard III), Penelope Allen (as Queen Elizabeth), Harris Yulin (as King Edward), and Kevin Spacey (as Buckingham).
Commercial Performance: This film earned a box office of $1,408,575.
Awards and Nominations: This film won two awards and four nominations. During the 1997 American Cinema of Editors held in the USA, the movie received an Eddie Award for Best Edited Documentary Film (for Ned Bastille, Pasquale Buba, William A. Anderson, and Andre Ross Betz). Al Pacino won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. Al Pacino was nominated for the Golden Camera during the Cannes Film Festival. He also received a nomination for Truer Than Fiction Award from the Independent Spirits Awards.
Plot: This film is set in the New York City Subway system, where a group of individuals reside in an abandoned section of the subway called the Freedom Tunnel. While relocating from Manhattan to London, actor, Marc Singer, learned of the people living in the underground. He developed an attachment to them, which moved him to make this movie. In this film, Singer chronicles how the homeless people live.
Director: Marc Singer.
Main Cast: Marc Singer is the only credited cast member of 'Dark Days'.
Commercial Performance: Unknown.
Awards and Nominations: Dark Days was critically acclaimed and won seven awards and six nominations. In 2000, Marc Singer won the LAFCA Award for Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film during the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. During the Sundance Film Festivals, Marc won three awards; Audience Award (for Documentary), Cinematography Award (for a Documentary), and the Freedom of Expression Award.
Plot: Working on their twelfth studio album called 'Let it Be', the movie shows how The Beatles rehearsed and practiced in preparation for the album’s release. The movie also chronicles the album’s writing. ‘The White Album’ had faced a lot of complexity and density in its production. So Paul McCartney opts to return to basics with the next album. In spite of that, tensions develop within the band, which quickly sends the studio into a chaos.
Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
Main Cast: The Beatles.
Commercial Performance: Unknown.
Awards and Nominations: During the 1971 Academy Awards, the Beatles won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score. The film also won a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.
6. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
Plot: At the time of making this film, it is more than three decades since German-American pilot, Dieter Dengler, survived being shot down over Laos. Fully recovered, he returns to the very places where he was held prisoner during the Vietnam War early years. In candid details, Dieter explains his experience in captivity, the friendships he made with people he interacted with, and how he made his daring escape. Director, Werner Herzog, coaxes Dieter to relate some of the torture he that he endured to the villagers they encounter.
Director: Werner Herzog.
Main Cast: Dieter Dengler, Werner Herzog (through voice as himself/narrator) and Eugene Deatrick.
Commercial Performance: Unknown.
Awards and Nominations: ' Little Dieter Needs to Fly' was critically acclaimed. It won five awards and three nominations. Werner Herzog won three awards, including the Special Jury Award during the 1997 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival and the Silver FIPA Award for Documentary and Essay during the 1999 Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming.
Plot: The film chronicles a regular guy, Nev Schulmanas, as he develops a friendship that grows into a romantic relationship with a woman on Facebook. Nev is filmed by a friend who is the director, Henry Joost. The film reveals how catfishing happens on social networking sites (a person creates a fake account and disguises himself as someone he is not).
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.
Main Cast: Nev Schulman, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.
Commercial Performance: 'Catfish' is one of the most successful and highest-grossing documentary movies. It was produced on a budget of $30,000. The film earned $3.5 million.
Awards and Nominations: This film won two awards and seven nominations. During the Utah Film Critics Association Awards held in 2010, it won the UFCA Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. It also won the WFCC Award during the Women Film Critics Circle Awards in 2010.
Conclusion
This article has explored some of the seven best biographical films produced. They represent an eclectic array of the best of biographical films available.
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